best practices for functioning of regulatory...

Best practices for functioning

of regulatory agencies

Centre for Science and Environment

March 29, 2015

Evolution of environmental legislation

STOCKHOLM CONFERENCE

Stockholm Conference 1972

“ The environment problems of

developing countries are not side

effects of excessive

industrialization but reflects the

inadequacy of development. The

rich countries may worth upon

development as the cause of

environment destruction but to us

it is one of the primary means of

improving the environment for

living or providing food, water ,

sanitation and shelter of making

deserts green and mountain

habitable”.

Hierarchy of legislation

Constitution

Acts

Rules

Notifications

Constitutional provisions

42nd Amendment Constitution, 1976:

48A Directive Principle of State Policy – “State shall endeavor to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and the wildlife of the country”

51A Fundamental Duties – It shall be the duty of every citizen of India “to protect and improve the natural environment including various lakes, rivers & wildlife and have compassion for living creatures”.

Environmental

Legislations in

India

POLLUTION CONTROL ACTS RULES AND

NOTIFICATIONS IN INDIA(10)

The Water(Preventionand Controlof Pollution)Act, 1974

The Water(Preventionand Controlof Pollution)Cess Act,1977

The Air(Preventionand Controlof Pollution)Act, 1981

The Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991

The NationalGreen TribunalAct, 2010

(01) (02) (03) (04) (05) (06)

(011)

The Rules,1975

(012)

Procedure for Transaction of

Business Rules, 1975

(0111)

• Constitution of Appellate Authority• Delegation of powers to Union Territory (UT)• Central Water Laboratory

(032)(031)

Air Rules,1981

(0311)

• Declaration of air pollution control areas• Constitution of appellate authority• Fee for analysis

Air Rules,(UT)1983

(021)

Cess Rules,1978

(051)

Rules, 1991

The Environmental(Protection) Act, 1986

RULES AND NOTIFICATION UNDER E (P) ACT

E (P) ACT

(O4)

041(Key Rules)

Pollution Control049

Waste (Management and Handling) Rules

E(P) Rules, 1986

• Authorized inspection• Authorized persons to take

sample• Delegation of powers• Emission standards• Ambient noise standards• National ambient air quality

standards• Vehicular emission standards• Handling of azo dyes• Coastal regulation zone• Doon valley regulation zone• Dahanu regulation• EIA notification

Noise Pollution Act, 2000

042 Hazardous waste,1989

043 Bio-medical waste,1998

044 Municipal solidwaste, 2000

045 The BatteriesRules, 2001

Products Chemical and Accidents

044 The OzoneDepletingsubstances, 2000

045 the RecycledPlastics Manufactureand Usage Rules,1999

046 The Bureau ofIndian StandardsCertificationRegulation, 1997

045 Eco-MarkScheme, 1991

046 The Manufacture,Storage and Import ofHazardous ChemicalsRules, 1989

047 The ChemicalAccidents (Emergencyplanning,Preparedness andResponse) Rules,1996

048 The Manufacture,Use, Import, Export,Storage of HazardousMicroorganismsGeneticallyEngineeredOrganisms or CellsRules, 1989

Environmental Regulators

• CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

• STATE GOVERNMENT

• CENTRAL POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD

• STATE POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD/COMMITTEE

INTER AUTHORITY NETWORK

PARLIAMENT

CENTRAL

GOVERNMENT

Concerned Ministry

Central

Board

ACTS

RULESBILL

ACTS

RULES

FORMATION

DIRECTION

FUND

SUPERSEDE

ADVICE

State

Board

State

Government

State

Assembly

INFORMATION

DIRECTION

DIRECTION

FORMATION

DIRECTION

FUND

SUPERSEDEADVICE

BILL

BILLRULES

Major functions of SPCB and CPCB

● Making regulations, and the

regulatory and monitoring

functions

● Data management, information

dissemination and capacity

building of stakeholders

● Planning, execution and advisory

functions

● Research and development

Making regulations, and the regulatory and

monitoring functions

● Making regulations, and the

regulatory and monitoring

functions

● Data management, information

dissemination and capacity

building of stakeholders

● Planning, execution and advisory

functions

● Research and development

Making regulations, and the regulatory and

monitoring functions

● Making rules

● Environmental monitoring

● Consent/authorisation mechanism

● Inspection and compliance

assurance

● Self-regulation, including

environmental audit

● Penal provisions

Data management, information dissemination

● Data generation and management

● Dissemination of information

● Mass awareness programme

● Public participation

● Capacity building of stakeholders

Major functions of SPCB and CPCB

Planning, execution and advisory

functions

● Planning and securing execution

● Advisory functions

Research and development

Report Card – Manpower crunch

While…

• Number of industries have gone up significantly

• Board’s scope of responsibilities has gone up

manifold – more legislations

BUT…

• The number of employees remain unchanged

• Difficulties in attracting right kind of manpower

• Existing technically qualified staff leaving for better

opportunities

Report Card: Manpower crunch

• No or minimal increase in sanctioned positions even though number of industries going up

• In Karnataka PCB, number of sanctioned posts dropped by 6.5 per cent while the number of industries went up by 156 per cent

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06

San

cti

on

ed

Po

st

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5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

Nu

mb

er

of

ind

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ies

Sanctioned Post

Number of industries


14

63

15

0

24

14

66

9

38

25

14

66

8

38

25

14

50

4

38

26

15

56

4

46

21

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

GPCB KSPCB MPCB CSPCB WBSPCB

Boards

Perc

en

tag

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f vacan

t p

osit

ion

s

2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06

Most state boards have high percentage of vacantposts – difficulty in hiring due to bureaucraticrequirement


• Not only less manpower, the state boards

also do NOT have right kind of manpower

• Most boards dominated by administrative

staff

52

62

45 4743 4548

38

55 5357

55

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

GP

CB

KS

PC

B

MP

CB

CS

PC

B

TN

SP

CB

WB

SP

CB

% Technical and Scientific

staff

% Non technical staff


Insufficient technical manpower, means

overworked employees

• One technical staff in GPCB is responsible

for as many as 68 industries,

• In case of Maharashtra and Karnataka

board, it is as high as 182 and 142

industries respectively

• On an average, one technical staff in

GPCB is able to give only 4.65 days to

monitor per industry in the state, 2.33 in

KSPCB and 1.66 days in MPCB

Imminent measures

• Hiring should be made easier

• Balance maintained between administrative

and technical staff

• Attractive pay package and incentive

programmes

• Promotion process should be streamlined

• Benefits should be at par with the private

sector

Lack of qualified legal staff

● The CPCB/SPCBs are the prosecuting authorities in

case of pollution control violation, as well as the target of

an increasing number of law suites for failure to enforce

compliance.

● Number of PILs and judicial mandates has grown over

the years, there has been little attention paid to building

legal capacity and training.

● Increasingly difficult for SPCBs to prosecute cases, in

part due to the lack of legal knowledge and enforcement

resources to collect the necessary evidence to convict

polluters.

● At the same time, industry often has the resources – both

legal and financial – to defend against protracted

litigation or to negotiate a favorable settlement.

Report Card: Legal Cases

• Decline in cases filed by PCB– Time consuming

– Low rate of conviction

– Large percentage of pending cases

48

18

76

96

38

55

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

GPCB MPCB OSPCB CSPCB UPSPCB KSPCB

Perc

en

tag

e o

f p

en

din

g c

ases

Quality of manpowerExpert Job profile

Sociologist 1. Assess the socio-economic profile and changes in an area

2. Assess socio-economic impacts on the local community

Environmental statistician 1. For enabling efficient use of statistical tools for better understanding

2. Helping eliminate all possible sources of error in environmental analysis

Economist 1. Performing Cost benefit analysis

2. Bringing an economic perspective to the team of experts by analysis the proposed

policy or regulation.

Software engineer 1. Employing useful software tools to analyze the feasibility or impacts of a project.

2. Updating and building interactive websites

Environmental health expert 1. Assessing environmental health related issues of the region

Spokesperson 1. For clear and efficient communication by the technical team to the rest of the

stakeholders

Occupational Health Expert 1. Assessing Occupational Health hazards by the industries

Forest Manager/Ranger 1. For addressing issued related to forest management

2. Green belt development

Planner 1. For providing a holistic view of techno-socio political construct of the environment in

the region

Experienced environmental advocate 1. For providing legal advice to the technical board

Report Card: Financial Details

• No financial constraint

• During 2005-06, income of various boards

were in crores, especially of boards from

industrialised states - Rs 1397.8 lakhs

(GPCB), Rs 5421.4 lakhs (MPCB), etc.

• Most boards do NOT depend on external

funds

– On an average, 80 per cent of income is from

internal source (water cess, consent fees)

– However, some boards like J&K, North-east are

heavily dependent on funds due to various

reasons

Report Card: Financial details

• Internal fund – Consent fees and water

cess account for major chunk

• In the case of GPCB, the water cess,

consent fee and NOC contribute 69 per

cent of total income

• Rate of consent fees vary from state to

state

• Cess is applicable for some industries so

states which do not have these industries

loose on their revenue

Report Card: Expenditure

• Many of the boards do not even spend 60 per cent of their

resources and thus have surpluses

• MPCB and GPCB were left with a surplus of Rs 25.19 crores in 2005-06 and Rs 22.97 crores in 2004-05 respectively

• Major expenditure is on salary: Very less on monitoring of Industries or capital investment

68.7

22.3

44.4

63.7

23.8

85.9

45.1

0.0

20.0

40.0

60.0

80.0

100.0

GPCB KSPCB MPCB OSPCB CSPCB TNSPCB WBSPCB

Percen

tag

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n s

ala

ry

an

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ag

es (

%)

Report Card: Expenditure

• Amount spent of monitoring industry is very low

• On average every year, GPCB spends only Rs.

2188 to monitor one industry while MPCB spends

only Rs. 2903,

• This cost also includes travel, accommodation,

sample collection and analysis

• Prior approvals is required before making capital

investments as a result very few have spent on

developing infrastructure

Imminent measures

• Remove the restrictions on spending of the

boards

• Boards need to reassess their spending:

Separate fund for monitoring and inspection

• Water cess: Mandatory for all type of

industries

• Evaluate potential new sources of revenue:

penalties, bank guarantees

Good practices: Advisory

● River pollution: Public protest led to

inventorisation

● SPCB and CPCB advised Government of

India on river quality in India

● Advisory based on detailed technical and

scientific study

● Based on the recommendation:● National River Conservation Direction was set

up to take the remedial action

● Fund was provided by the government

Good practices: Advisory

● Air and water pollution by small scale

industries: public protest and court

intervention

● CPCB did inventorisation and suggestion

for technology improvement

● Government of India accepted the

recommendations

● Impact● Technology transfer

● Loan from banks at low interest

Good practices: Planning

● Protest across the country on environmental and

social impact from industrialisation

● CPCB hired German experts and prepared

zoning atlas

● Zoning Atlas: Accessed pollution load in different

areas, identified areas where least impact, water

and land availability, low chances of public

protest

● Impact

● Appreciated by civil society

● Rejected by government under political

pressure

Good practices: Planning

● Identification of critically polluted areas

● Moratorium on expansion and new industries

● Action plan to reduces the pollution and get

removed from the list

● Opportunity for states to clean up the polluted

sites

● Impact

● Appreciated by civil society

● Rejected by government under political

pressure

Good practices

Consent Management: Case study from MPPCB

● Transparent Consent Mechanism: 07-08

● Presentations on first and third Thursdays of

every month

● Feed back from all the officers - same day –

uploaded on website

● Disposal time reduced from 120 days to 20-30

days

● Any person may attend

● Improved transparency and reduced

corruption

Good practices

Environment Compliance Assistance Centre (ECAC)

● ECAC was established by the Dept of Environment,

Govt of West Bengal and West Bengal Pollution

Control Board

● Being done through regional exchange of innovative

policies and practices with support from the United

States Agency for International Development

(USAID).

● ECAC provides industries with access to a wide

range of information on environmental compliance

and enforcement to assist them in meeting national

and international regulatory requirements and going

beyond with voluntary measures.

● Major focus areas of ECAC is providing support to

small and medium sectors

Good practices

● GPCB set up help desks at all the regional

offices to assist industries in submitting

applications and forms for consent and

authorisation.

● Help desks mainly cater to the small scale

industries: difficult to regulate because of

their sheer number

● Small-scale: run by local heavyweights

and illetrate: face difficulties in filling up

forms and understanding the compliance

procedures

Good practices in data management

• Case study from Gujarat Pollution Control Board

● GPCB started working on a software developed by

NIC (National Informatics Centre) called XGN

(Xtended Green Node)

● XGN makes the functioning of the board

transparent and accountable and has also helped

in speeding up GPCB’s work without recruiting

additional staffs

● GPCB can now keep track of when the consent of

a particular industry would expire, when the last

inspection was conducted or how many times it

has violated the statutory norms.


1) Industry profile 9) Hazardous waste

2) Online application module 10) Bio-medical waste

3) Application scrutiny section 11) Legal

4) E-file movement 12) Public grievance

5) Inspection 13) Municipal solid waste

6) Sample analysis 14) Water Cess

7) Accounting 15) General file

8) GPCB/CPCB projects movement

Good practices

Online Environmental Management by MPCB

● Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) came up

with a facility for online submission of environmental

statement.

● The industries can now fill the Form V concerning

environmental compliance online on the MPCB’s

website.

● The filed data can be filtered by MPCB as per Region,

Industry Type, Sub Industry Type, Industry Category and

Sub Industry Category.

● Is equivalent to a brief audit report filed by industrial units

to provide details of their use of water, fuel, raw material

consumption, hazardous waste generation, emissions

and effluent water treatment.

Good practices

● The online initiative helps MPCB to create a database of

the polluting industries.

● Facilitates easy and prompt calculation of the total

emissions, hazardous waste and effluents.

● Create a complete communication directory with consent

details enabling instantaneous audit of Companies.

● A Red Flag is generated in case of discrepancies

enabling MPCB to take instant action.

● Website also generates quick and instantaneous reports

which include graphical representation of Air, Water and

Hazardous Waste to identify the critically polluted areas

● To check the authenticity of data companies submit an

affidavit along with the data.

Good practices: Inspection

● CCTV cameras are installed at industrial units across

industrial clusters in Gujarat.

● Cameras capture images of emissions from smoke

stacks at industrial units and transfer them through

Digital Video Recorder (DVR) to the regional office of

GPCB.

● The data is then accessed by the regional office using

internet and live feeds of smoke stacks and can be seen

on a LCD-TV installed there.

● The recordings are stored for 30 days

● Surveillance officer at GPCB contacts the person in

charge of the unit through mobile in case of thick

emissions observed from their stack and directs them to

control the emission immediately


● The areas of Narol, Saijpur and Ranipur home to above

100 textile units are under this project. They use highly

polluting solid fossil fuels or wood in Boiler or Thermic

Fluid Heater.

● A total number of 29 DVR have been installed which are

connected to 57 cameras that cover 89 stacks of Boiler

or Thermic Fluid Heater in 75 industries.

● One of the limitations of CCTV monitoring is that it can

be done only during daylight hours.

● However, with limited staff in office the system became

helpful for better surveillance and monitoring of air

pollution.

● Yielded positive outcomes by optimizing fuel

consumption and reducing air pollution levels.

National Air Quality Index (NAQI) - India

• NAQI was launched recently in India on April

6, 2015.

• It is tool which uses numbers to simplify and

categorise the air pollution level in the city.

• This index uses six different colour codes to

classify how harmful the pollution in a specific

area is, as - good, satisfactory, moderate,

poor, very poor and severe.

Flaws in the NAQI

• For this system to work efficiently it is important that all the

stations should work properly: out of 28 locations half of them

shows result - “Insufficient data for computing AQI”.

• People don’t know what they should do as precautionary

actions based on pollution levels.

• In fact the government has not planned an aggressive action

plan which tells people what they should do and apart from

this how to combat the problem of air pollution.

• The AQI at present is only for 10 cities, this number needs to

be increased so that the citizens all over the country can know

about the pollution in their area.

Some International good Practices in AQI

Beijing:

• Local government in China are now liable to pay fine if

air pollution level hits critical marks.

• When orange warning signal is issued the polluting

industries are directed to cut down the emission or shut

down completely.

• Construction sites will halt excavation and demolition

operations, and barbeques and fireworks are banned on

heavily polluted days.

PARIS:

• In Paris public transport was made free which resulted in

moving out almost 50 per cent of vehicles from the

roads.

• Lorries were instructed to ply at a speed not more than

20 km/hr.

• On smoggy days drivers are advised to bypass the city

or are not allowed to enter. Apart from this diesel

vehicles are not allowed on smoggy days.

• Vehicles with odd / even number plates are allowed on

alternate days.

Transparency

● Websites

● All have websites but updation is irregular

● Meghalaya: Public hearing details were last updated

in 2011

● Annual report

● Meghalaya: 2011-12

● Assam, AP, Tripura, Nagaland: not on website

● Sikkim: NO information except EIA

● Publication: 1 or 2 have but are very old

● Inventorisation/ study

Capacity building

● No funding

● No staff

● No internal mechanism

Standard operating procedures

● Sweden: Inspector needs to clear a two years course on

how to conduct inspection

● India: Officers are asked to inspect without any training

● Absence of standard operating procedures

● How to do inspection?

● How to grant consent to operate/consent to establish?

● Lack of accountability

CSE’s association with regulators

● Turnaround: A Reform Agenda for

regulators

● Tripartite agreement with MoEF&CC and

CPCB to build capacities of regulators

● Conducted over 14 one-week training

programmes and 8 one month training

programmes for officers of SPCB and

CPCB

● In totality, we have trained around 453

officers of SPCB/CPCB since December

2010

CSE’s association with regulators

● Collaborated with Gujarat Pollution Control

Board and Bihar State Pollution Control

Board

● Contributes to the deliberations on better

environmental governance from time to

time; latest being the Subramanian

Committee where CSE’s

recommendations were acknowledged

● Request from Maharashtra and Tamil

Nadu Pollution Control Board

CSE, SEPA and NEA

• Milestone: CSE collaborated with

Swedish Environment Protection Agency in

2012 and Norwegian Environment agency

in 2014

• The collaboration sought to expose the

regulators to best practices in

environmental governance from developed

countries

CSE, SEPA and NEA

Indian regulators at a

waste co-processing

unit at Langesund,

Norway

Regulators at an e-waste

recycling unit at Norway

Regulators at a pulp and paper mill

at Gothenburg, Sweden

Best Practices on Regulatory Function Under Water and Air

Acts

REGULATION

PROACTIVE

REACTIVECommand

& Control

Catalytic

Norms

Consent

Vigilance

Audit

Technology

Self

Regulation

Best practices from Sweden, US

• Name and shame policy

• Five year planning: target, yearly action

plan- public document

• Specialized person for specialized job

• Information in public domain

• Trust relationship with industry

• Compliance history on website

• Online Public grievance system

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